Intel Update: Conroe!

[Gibbo]

Hi there

Right as follows:-

E6300 OEM - 200 Units arriving Thursday/Friday this week!
E6300 - E6700 Retail - Today was just a paper launch only! What a flop! Intel and distributors say stock will not hit until middle of August but are guaranteeing that OcUK will be first with stock at beginning of August with plenty of product to clear all backorders and more.
X6800 - Plenty in stock still!


All I can say is what a big dissapointment as the 24th July (today) was a mere paper launch for Conroe, officially stock will not hit until Mid August but Intel have promised to make sure were the first UK stockist with product 1st week of August.

We are attempting to source more OEM product sooner.

 

[Gibbo]

Hang on a minute, paper launch or not, surely you know if you have stock in!!

Are you really saying that you only found out taoday that you didn't have any stock!!

Intel have just been saying 24th, 24th. However the only information we got today was more accurate information as to leadtimes. When we were actually expecting to be told yes xxxxxx amount has been shipped, so its a huge let down all round and seriously unexpected.

Only product that we have recieved more of today is X6800's......

Yes we may see OEM stock sooner but thats a complete unknown and word is we SHOULD see stock 1st week of August but I've been in the business long enough to know delivery dates often get put back.

Though today has been hectic and I am sure more accurate answers and ETAs will come later this week when the initial launch is over with.....

 

[Gibbo]

So realy overs have got huge amounts of pre-orders and all that cash from it sitting in there bank account gathering interest while the customers now have to wait atleast 2 weeks or could be longer for there goods.

Nobody forces you to pre-order! So stop your moaning.........

Pre-order is an optional thing and yes we do take payment, quite common knowledge now.
When stock does arrive obviously those with pre-orders are 1st in the queue.

 

[Gibbo]

Not moaning just stating a fact

And I am stating the fact its optional to pre-order too.

 

[Gibbo]

I appreciate it is all if's and but's - but should you get some OEM E6600's in stock before the retail ones, would be possible for us pre-order people to have the option of changing our orders?

Nope because if we put them on pre-order and retails do happen to turn up sooner than everybody would be changing their orders back.

If I do 110% source more OEM then it will go on the site but not until I know 110% !!

 

[Gibbo]

Gibbo, it would be nice if there was a hold on the debit process and only take the money on the day it ships, use our payment info (aka credit cards / debit cards) as security. Just a thought, at least customers may not feel so hard done by.

-casw1000

That would cause a lot of problems.

As when you/customer place order you have funds available if we were to wait and charge the card you may not have funds and hence take you overdrawn or decline payment.

Or you may completely forget you've placed a backorder and when a month later a large SUM of money dissapears from your account could get scary.

Then there is the fact you may pay on a card that expires shortly afterwards.

Not taking payment when order is placed is just opening the door to a whole host of problems.

Imagine how annoyed you would be if you were 1st in the queue and stock came in but you never got yours because when attempting to charge the card there was issues and as such you missed out.

This is why payment is taken immediately as then you the customer gets no surprises and you get your product at the earliest possible time.

 

[Gibbo]

I have to say I am a bit annoyed as I am sure many others are to hear this. If you can make X6800's you can make 6600's and every domination in between so to claim there is no stock is not accurate.

Would it be more accurate to say that you (OCUK) cannot source stock before the 1st week of August? Regardless of whether you will be first in the UK or not.

Once again the marketing lies shine through. Though you have to ask yourself why you waited until the day they were due to arrive with yourselves to ask the question. Are they going to arrive. You can't tell me no one knew. Distributors must have known when they were getting stock. Intel certainly know when they have shipped stuff from their distribution points. So if you were dealing directly with Intel. Are your contacts so bad they aren't even being honest with you now?

I am not saying OCUK is to blame because you probably got your information from Intel UK or a distributor. Now regardless of which, do you really want to continue to deal with the individuals within either company that fed you such drasticly inaccurate information? The information which is sullying OCUK's reputation and destroying customer trust.

Do you honestly expect your customers to trust the next date you issue?

That's not to say we don't appreciate your efforts, because we do but you have let us down. You know you have. Take it on the chin and make it right. Impress us with your resourcefulness. We challenge you!

Right lets state some facts!

This is a huge important launch, so important that I myself have pestered the UK's six main distributors and a couple of European ones regarding stock and leadtimes. There answer has always been we will know more on July 24th the supposedly launch day.
I have spoken to Intel detailing/updating them on our backorder status along with all UK distributors and a couple of European ones too. Again this all increase the chances of getting great allocation.

So today comes and in all honesty myself and distributors were hoping to get some stock in. Wheras all that happens is a handful of X6800's arrive at just a couple of distributors.

So today all distributors have been on the phone to Intel basically asking whats going on, when will they see stock. I've been doing the same.....

Intels advice was to take any OEM we get offered and expect Retail product in August.

I've never know a launch like it to be quite frank, AMD launches have always been a lot smoother.

You as customers feel let down, imagine how we feel as I think everybody was genuinely expecting Intel to ship good stocks this week hence why so many other Etailors are listing product for sale as well.

Its just a matter of having to wait when we get stock we will let you know like we always do no matter how small quantity. The fact remains we were the first to place backorders with all distributors and kept Intel well informed so they know to deliver good stocks to us at the earliest possible date.

Regarding customers trusting us is upto them, we merely place the dates were informed via the manufacturer/distributor. Things get delayed in this industry and we can't be to blame for just passing information on.

But I think whats best to keep everybody happy I will no longer post on these forums and just do as other sites do which is place product on pre-order or not bother at all. Because its impossible to please all, I don't see competitors informing their customers as to why this launch has turned out to be a complete flop. To be honest it seems pointless in me doing the same and wasting my time as everybody just picks a new point to moan about.

I am fustrated as there is nothing worse than seeing orders not ship and I can understand customers fustration but OcUK is working its damn hardest to get stock here soonest but like everybody we are in INTELS hands!

 

[Gibbo]

So basicly what your saying if I read you correctly is Intel just kept fobbing you off until they had to come out with the truth.

I bet you are as ****** off as us then. Still you know how this works Gibbo, we are the customer, you are the supplier. We pass the crap to you and you pass the crap to Intel. None of which does anyone any good but makes us feel like we are doing something when in all honesty we have no control over the situation

Nope Intel just said Monday is the day and distributors will sort allocation then. So as you can imagine you'd expect several different SKUs to ship. Yet the only thing that has shipped is X6800's. Maybe Intel should have named this the X6800 launch as thats the only thing they have shipped.

Now the truth seems to be early to middle August with the possibility of OEM sooner......

I understand how it works but I come on here giving you guys the information I have been given, in essence I am just passing it on. I don't have to do this and to be frank when all I get is confrontation I don't really see the point of doing it, might as well just leave you all guessing could be an option if I did not care...........

 

[Gibbo]

Ah but as I said in my original post we appreciate the efforts you go to which is why OCUK gets my order over anyone else.

We trust you and that is something to be proud of.

We all should have known better but we wanted to believe

To be quite honest I fell into the same trap.

Intel been such a big player they are you'd expect to be able to get a launch right with plenty of stock. Yet clearly something has delayed their production along the line, not what you'd expect from a giant like Intel.

I even spoke to DELL today and they have no Conroe CPU's available either and you'd expect them to be first, so Intel have clearly had delays.

I'd like to think stock will be here in approx a week but my gut feeling is more like two weeks.

Also unfortunately my job is not as easy as just speaking to Mr Intel all day. I've had AMD stock to source due to the price drop and the sales have been mental and sourcing stock hard. Then there is all the general purchasing and product manager dutues to get done as well, its been a busy stressful day!

 

[Gibbo]

I am one of the people who have been flaming OCUK for today antics but it is not because they have not been able to live up to expectation over stocking the conroe that falls squarely on Intels shoulders.

What i am angered about is.... i was very quick off the mark to order my OEM e6300. Thursday i phoned OCUK to see when it would ship i was then told Monday although there was a chance that it could have been friday. On Friday Gibbo posted that the oem e6300 was in stock but could not be shipped till monday because of Intel (fair enough) So Friday i phoned again and was assured my 6300 would ship on monday. Monday morning i phoned again and was promised that it would definately ship today.

This is were the problems start, we get nearer the end of office hours and still no shipping confirmation email so i phone up again to be told all out of stock and have no clue about lead time. Got home from work very frustrated thought i would phone again to vent some frustration, as soon as the operator realised that i had been reading the forums and gibbos post he became much more helpful and came back to me saying that the oem 6300would be in stock and would definately ship to me that day.

so three times i was promised the shipping date wrongfully and there was not a single sign of an apology for it. Thats why i am annoyed, no blame can be attributed to gibbo or OCUK for lack of stock but blame can be attributed to lack of customer service by the sales team on the telephone.

This has come from more rubbish from Intel. One of our distributors got stock in and said they had shipped to us. All that arrived was 5 units, yes a measly 5 units out of 200. Upon ringing our distributor it was said to find out that Intel had clamped right down and strictly did not want any stock going out. So fair enough stock will be here Monday, but in some bizzare way the stock has gone round in a full circle and won't be shipping out to us until Wednesday/Thursday. The only good news is this time round it will be the full lot, I am just keeping fingers crossed it actually arrives Friday as like you lot I am quickly losing faith in Intels ability to deliver. They are causing me stress and upsetting all our customers.

Yes they do seem to be supporting us as we do seem to be the only one who are getting decent X6800 quantities, wheras other companies have seen no stock or just a handful of units.

Lets all just hope Intel start shipping some volume and as seen with the X6800's when it comes to retail products we will get the most, the X6800 stock situation is proof of that.

 

[Gibbo]

I'm sure its not OCUK's fault... but why oh why do OCUK have stock of the X6800 while other retailers at a lower price have pre orders un full filled????

Intel have ruined this launch for me and i'm tempted to forget the whole thing... it all seems very corrupt if you ask me and not at all in the interests of the customer, who is paying more and more for thier equipment.

Intel - you have a lot to answer for.

Thats because like I said from the beginning OcUK would and will be the first to recieve retail product and also in large quantities. Intel have been drooling at the numbers of X2 and FX processors we do for the last 12 months. They now know that in order to make an impact in the UK market OcUK is their top priority when it comes to the ultimate CPU's and great overclocking CPUs.

The only moment where OcUK may not be first is with OEM product as this tends to be what is known as grey in the channel and both Intel/AMD look badly upon this, goes to show how desperate Intel are though when they are suggesting I buy some OEM E6300's they are shipping into SI's.

Also Intel have a price point to hit and the other Etailors you see selling cheaper are selling at very low margins and Intel just like any other manufacturer does not want to see their product de-valued or trashed. These are desperate Etailors who do very little turn-over or are trying to expand their high-end business side of things and the only way they can do so is by price. OcUK does not go trashing prices unless backed up by the manufacturer to do so and this has learnt us a lot of respect and built great relationships. Plus the fact OcUK sells more high-end, first to market, overclockable products than other Etailor in the UK.

Thats why Intel has given us literally 90% of the UK's allocation of X6800's. Were selling on average 3-5 units per day and Intel keep shipping us the stock, they don't have much but they do have enough to keep us going.

I'd like to think I do a damn good job as a purchasing manager and product manager for OcUK which really pays off when I persuade somebody like Mr Intel to give make sure OcUK is first and gets most of the allocation.

Now no one can disagree we've had X6800 in stock before anybody else and have never run out due to getting great allocation, you can see alone that 10-20 forum members have purchased X6800's from OcUK and just imagine how many more we have sold to customers who don't even know these great forums exist.

Intel are promising the same support to me on all their other lines, so if things do go like the X6800 has gone for us then OcUK will be the first to recieve the other lines in stock and will get the most allocation.

 

[Gibbo]

Why will you get most when you have unsold stock and others dont, despite the fact that they have pre orders ????

Because I am very good at my job!

Other Etailors are competition and I do my best to make sure they get none and I get all. Call it greedy buts its business and I guess I am just a better purchaser when it comes down to it.

 

[Gibbo]

Good to see market forces working well.. no monopoly here then.

Well its logical to give the most stock to the place that will sell the most. OcUK does that time and time over again.

 

[Gibbo]

last comment - else this thread decends into closure terratory.

I am just soooo upset despite buying all my pervious kit for the last 5 years from OCUk that the price of Conroe's is just so high in comparison. Thats why it hurts when you say you will get all the stock. Its just not in the interests of me as a customer. I just done understand

We markup product at a fair margin, were here to stay in business, why should we sell product at near cost, when we have to back it up and warrant the product. Wages to pay and overheads to cover.

Anybody can setup a website and sell products cheap or near cost but most of them change hands quicker than most people have hot meals or just end up going bust. As OcUK is here to stay we make sure cost are covered. Remember this is a very expensive CPU so a couple of percentage makes quite a price difference. One Etailor maybe happy to make 5%, OcUK is not....

 

[Gibbo]

Interesting comments glad i ordered a cheapy celeron to flash that p5w although ill get the cele tommorow and mobo next week.

If I order all my parts including a e6600 will I get the mobo psu etc etc before the core 2 or will they all be shipped together to save on postage? or can I chosse?

If you ordered it all on one order then it will ship when all items are in stock.

If you wanna get bits sooner call sales and they can backorder the out of stock items for and ship the in stock product out.

Though do it first thing in the morning as we still have P5W DH Deluxe boards in stock, it only say not in stock on the website because all the stock is assigned to backorders, so essentially no longer available even though in stock.............

 

[Gibbo]

I 100% agree with all your points.

It is a let down not getting the conroe. There was a post (which I will not highlight in this sensitive situation) where someone said they could get the 6600 cheaper elsewhere and Gibbo himself replied "but we will be the first to get stock". I guess that doesn't hold much water anymore since that "other" e-tailer has stock and moving the processor out in full swing.

I think many people will now second guess pre-ordering goods from here...I think this could be the case when the quad core processors come out in Q4 this year.

I do feel sorry for you Gibbo, I hope things work out okay.

Also on a lighter note,@Gibbo: don't hurt the Intel source too bad, we still need'em for the quad core processor in a few months! (*takes Gibbo's gun away* - the one your carrying in your avatar )

I'd really like to know who this other Etailor is as for no matter how much looking I do I just can't find anybody? Please email me info at [email protected]

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there

Come on guys this chap from Intel has come here to try and help. Yes he does work for Intel and has great insight plus he will be making sure OcUK gets stock of product ASAP.

Don't give him a hard time he's only trying to help, were all very annoyed at Intel for ruining this launch.

Today gets even more interesting though as NVIDIA are doing an official Conroe/SLi launch on 27th August, which is Thursday, does this mean NVIDIA have been caught out too as they will be launching their revised P5N32 SLi Deluxe to support Conroe but as of yet still no Conroe processors accept for X6800 to place in the motherboard.

I get the feeling Intel have given numerous different launch dates to different parties and upto now none of them have been met which is just causing more fustration.....

 

[Gibbo]

How do you know that? Did you ask him to join the forum? If he signed up of his own free will could you just tell from his email address or something?

It seems to me that if Gibbo did want to pose as Intel guy, he'd be able to get anyone from the OcUK upper echelons to make posts in support of this new identity.

It just seems a bit strange that Intel Guy would sign up today and join the forums to give some input from his side of things, then skirt around telling us why Intel are delaying:


I would have thought that the ONLY reason for him to post in the forums was PRECISELY in order to give us this extra info. Gibbo has already told us the rest.

And need I remind you he does spell 'receive' like Gibbo too, which doesn't help!

They guy has been reading our forums, he asked if it was OK for him to register and post so I allowed him to do so.

Fact is Intel Guy works for Intel, its not up for debate so stop acting like children and please grow up.

 

[Gibbo]

If there is stock to ship to HP and Dell etc can you not source some of those Gibbo?

This stock will only become available if the big guys over order and need to sneak some out their back doors, I doubt that will be happening with Conroe........

 

[Gibbo]

Gibbo, how's the preorders on the E6300 OEM going? Are there any left now (ie not accounted for by preorders) and are there likely to be any left tomorrow and thursday? Cheers

Hi there

Yes about 150 left spare as long as we get 200 as promised, though this is a good reliable supplier so should get all 200 by Friday this week.